Equipment, judged by what it leaves behind
You are not buying a machine, so its specification is not the useful information. What matters is what each class can reach, what it can cut, and what condition it leaves the ground in.
Published by the Land Clearing Authority editorial team · Last revised 2026-07-29 · Editorial policy · Corrections
Equipment discussions in this trade tend to arrive as specifications — horsepower, flow rates, tooth patterns — which tells a landowner almost nothing about their own project. The useful translation is different: what will fit through the gate, what will cope with the largest stem, and what the ground will look like after it has driven over it.
Three properties do most of the explaining. Physical size decides access and therefore whether a machine can be on your site at all. Power and attachment design decide the diameter ceiling. Ground pressure — weight spread over the contact area — decides how much damage the machine does to soil, particularly wet soil.
These pages take each class and each relevant attachment in those terms, so that when a contractor names their machine you can work out what it implies for your property rather than taking the name on trust.
What this covers
- Machine classes by what they can reach and what they can cut
- Attachment design, and why two heads on identical carriers behave differently
- Ground pressure, compaction, and soil damage
- Below-grade equipment and what each approach removes
- Processing equipment and what happens to the material it produces
What this does not cover
Stated explicitly, with where the work actually belongs. A subject that cannot draw its own edge does not deserve a hub.
- Purchase and rental advice — this platform does not sell or rate equipment — see Commercial relationship disclosures
- Operating instruction or safety training — see Claim boundaries and disclaimer
- Brand and model comparison — see Editorial policy
Articles
Ground pressure, and what it does to soil
Of all the numbers a contractor could give you about their equipment, ground pressure is the one that predicts what your property will be like afterwards.
The machines a quote names, and the ones it doesn’t
Equipment lines on an estimate are not sales copy. They are a statement about what the contractor thinks your ground is, and reading them against what you can see is one of the few checks an owner can perform without any trade knowledge at all.
Tracked or wheeled: what the undercarriage changes
The attachment gets the attention and the undercarriage decides the outcome. Whether a carrier runs on tracks or tyres governs how much it marks your ground, what it can climb, and whether a wet week stops the job.
Grapples, rakes, and buckets: three ways to move the same pile
Once material has been cut, something has to gather it. Which attachment does that gathering decides how much of your topsoil leaves with the brush, and it is almost never discussed before the work starts.
Answers
What size machine does the job need?
Bigger is not better and smaller is not gentler. The right machine is the largest one that fits your access and that your soil will tolerate — in that order, because access is a hard limit and capability is a preference.
Can one machine do the whole job?
A single carrier with a single attachment can complete a great many clearing jobs from start to finish. It cannot complete a job that crosses from cutting into carrying, or from surface work into excavation — and knowing which side of those lines your scope sits on tells you how many contractors you are hiring.
What if the machine can’t reach part of the site?
Almost every parcel has a corner the machine cannot get to — behind a structure, across a wet gully, up a bank, beyond a gate that will not widen. It is a normal condition, not a failure, and there are five things you can do about it.
Buying guides
The equipment guide
You are not buying a machine, so its specification is not the useful information. What matters is what each class can reach, what it can cut, and what condition it leaves the ground in afterwards.
Documenting access dimensions before anyone quotes
A machine that cannot get in is a mobilisation charge for nothing. Six measurements, taken with a tape in twenty minutes, let every bidder tell you in advance whether their equipment fits — which is information no photograph provides.
Planning staging and laydown areas
Every clearing job needs ground that is not being cleared: somewhere the machine sits overnight, somewhere the transport unloads, somewhere material is piled. When nobody decides where, the crew picks the convenient spot — and convenient is rarely where you would have chosen.
Work out the scope before you ask for prices
Answer the five questions every quote depends on — what is growing, where the material goes, how deep removal has to reach, whether equipment can get in, and what the land is for afterwards. Then send one properly described project to the right kind of contractor.
Nothing on this site is a recommendation of a specific company. The guidance describes categories of work and the questions worth asking. If you decide to request quotes, the introduction is free to you, contractors may pay to receive it, and you are under no obligation to hire anyone.